Rescue Ops: Wildfire – Dev Diary #5

This Dev Diary is coming a bit earlier than usual. Most of the studio will be on holiday until the beginning of next year, but we still wanted to keep our promise: one Dev Diary per month! So this one will be a little shorter than usual - but still here, and filled with love.

As you know, we ran our first registration-based playtest for a large part of the month. A big portion of our work was therefore focused on it: fixing many bugs, reviewing player feedback… and we still have plenty to do to decide what we want to prioritize next!

So, let’s dive into the updates 👇

Progress on the truck self-protection system

Stuck in the flames? No worries with the self-protection system! We spent time improving the visual effects of this feature, and we’re now reaching a result we’re really happy with. What do you think?

We also worked on the effects when the truck is sprayed with water - water droplets are now clearly visible. We’re also considering adding a water droplet effect on the player’s camera to further enhance immersion.

UI improvements

During the playtest, several players pointed out that there wasn’t enough feedback when the player character was getting injured, especially when starting to lose health due to flames or smoke.

Here is the first version of the solution we’ve implemented to address this issue:

And also…

• Added a Benchmark scenario, ideal for measuring the performance of our playtesters’ computers

• Fixed many bugs

• All the work related to the playtest itself

📸 Photo event results

The playtest will end early on December 24th! To celebrate, we organized a small photo event, during which our playtesters were able to take screenshots of the game.

We’re proud to present our selection of 6 screenshots:

A huge thank you to all our playtesters, and especially to our photographers.

And don’t forget: more playtests are coming next year, so stay tuned! We’re also sharing our roadmap once again.

💌 Final words

That’s it for this December Dev Diary! It may seem short, but it was actually a very intense month. Thank you once again for your incredible support, it truly means a lot to us.

We know this time of year is often associated with joy, but it can also bring stress and anxiety. There’s a lot to manage, so we hope you’re able to take some time for yourself, whether you’re on holiday or not.

We wish you happy holidays, take care of yourselves. We’ll see you next year, and we wish you all the best!

❤️ Rescue Ops: Wildfire team